intersections

Sojourners on Faith-Based Community Organizing

I was interviewed back in June for this Sojourners article by Daniel Duncan Collum, "Why Does Glenn Beck Hate Community Organizers?" (a question that the article never attempts to answer, except in the tagline.).

I appreciated the opportunity to share how community organizing has invigorated our ministry in Hollywood. Hope you enjoy it!

Why Does Glenn Beck Hate Community Organizers?

The Main Reason: They upend the power structure to give people at the bottom a better chance.

By Danny Duncan Collum

When Ryan Bell took over as pastor of Hollywood Adventist Church in California, it was a withering congregation with only about 50 active members. And, he says, “We had a homeless ministry we couldn’t afford and a debt that was about to kill the church.” Bell reluctantly closed the feeding program for the homeless but resolved to find a more practical way to address the issue.

Soon he discovered LA Voice, a congregation-based community organizing federation affiliated with the PICO (People Improving Communities through Organizing) National Network that was working to have the city create permanent supportive housing for the homeless in Hollywood.

The Adventist congregation threw itself into that effort, which succeeded against intense local opposition. After that experience, Bell told Sojourners, he went to the Voice organizer and said, ‘Where do we sign up to join?’” But the organizer told him that there had to be a committee of lay leaders involved. “I just groaned,” Bell remembers. “I thought, ‘That’ll never happen.’” But Hollywood Adventist is now an integral part of the LA Voice federation working for affordable housing.

Read the rest here

VIDEO - Viral Hope

Earlier this year a book that I contributed to was published by my friend, JR Woodward. This book was an Easter project in 2009. During the 50 days of Easter 50 authors wrote approximately 500 words each explaining what the Christian good news is about. The audience was our local city newspaper. In my case, I wrote for the LA Times. The results is a book called ViralHope: Good News from the Urbs to the Burbs (and Everything in Between). This book would be ideal for a devotional book or for a discussion group.

Above is a video that was recently created to promote the book, which you can buy on Amazon.com by clicking here. I also have some copies in my office to sell. Contact me directly if you're interested.

Hating on the Purple Church

One of the occasional pastimes of people in Hollywood is hating on our church building. I've had plenty of people rave about how they love the unique "atomic" architecture of our church, but lately I've been running across blogger who have been posting these little drive-by screeds. Like John W. Smart, for example. I don't know who he is but today he writes a post about my church called, "Los Angeles eye sore of the day."

But it's okay. I can embrace this weakness for the sake of the work we're doing in the community. We're making good use the facility whether it's considered beautiful by everyone or not. I admit to hating the building when I first arrived, but I've really grown to appreciate it. Everything, that is, except the block walls and black iron fences that surround the place. Ah well...

Prayer Rally for Health Care Reform tomorrow!

Tomorrow I have the privilege to speak at a prayer rally in Hollywood in support of health care reform. This event is being put on by LA Voice and our 25 member congregations. I and a few other clergy will pray and speak to the issue from a moral/faith perspective.

Members of our congregations will tell their personal health care stories and then two of our elected officials will speak: Congressman Xavier Becerra and Congresswoman Diane Watson. Ms. Watson represents the area when I live and where the Hollywood Adventist Church is located.

If you live in the area and are available at 10:00 am, please come to:

Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church
6657 Sunset Boulevard
Hollywood, CA 90028

If you want to learn more about PICO's work on behalf of health care reform visit: www.coverallfamilies.org

Also check out this short piece at NPR's news blog.

The new Fire Station 82 breaks ground

A photo essay

This morning I walked across the street to join the groundbreaking ceremony for the new Fire Station 82. For the past 8 years the LAFD have been trying to locate and build this station. They finally settled on the lot across Van Ness from our church a year or so ago. There has been a lot of debate in the neighborhood about it, which I won't get into here. Suffice it to say, I'm happy that it's finally moving forward and there won't be an empty lot across from our church for very much longer.

My take on The Good News

My friend, JR Woodward, who is the pastor of Kairos Los Angeles and lives just down the road from me in Hollywood, has an incredible blog called Dream Awakener, which if you haven't seen it, you really need to check out. During the season of Easter he's asked 50 different writer to contribute a 300-500 word piece about the "good news" written for their local newspaper.

Here's how I start my piece off. You can see the list of all the contributors here (some pretty prestigious people) with links to their pieces.

My friends John and Aileen serve breakfast to about 150 hungry people on a relatively quiet sidewalk in Hollywood. They do this every weekday. They naturally have help from friends in the neighborhood. The only way you can distinguish the volunteers from those being “helped” is by the rubber gloves worn by the volunteers. I, too, look like I’ve just rolled out of bed. Some of those in line look more prepared for a job interview than I do. That’s probably where a couple of them are headed next after they finished their turkey sandwich, fresh strawberries and yogurt.

To me, John and Aileen embody the good news.

Read the whole thing here.

Stained Glass: Hollywood Blvd. (Episode 1)

I just realized that the first episode of the four-part documentary that the North America Division is doing about the Hollywood Adventist Church is now online at the Vervent website.

I'd love for you to have a look at it and tell me what you think. This was written and directed by one of our members, Melody George. (As an aside, you will be hearing a LOT more about Melody in the coming months...just sayin').

There are three churches that are a part of this project and each church will have four episodes. Stay tuned for the rest of these in the very near future.

Now, have a look at Episode one...click here and look under Featured Resources for "Stained Glass: Hollywood Blvd - Episode 1."

"With Friends Like These"

Tomorrow night, March 6, Dateline NBC will be airing a program called "With Friends Like These." (check your local listings). This is the story of the two women pictured above (Helen Golay, 77, left, and Olga Rutterschmidt, 75) who were convicted last year of murdering two homeless men. These women were Hollywood residents as were the two homeless men they murdered. My friend, Charles Suhayda, who is one of the pastors at the Hollywood Presbyterian Church, was interviewed for this epidode of Dateline because the homeless men were part of the ministry his church offers.

So, this touches me and my community personally. I hope you have time to watch this or tape it and watch it later.

2008 in Review

There is so much I could say about 2008. It has been, by far, the biggest growth year in terms of the Hollywood Church. And I don't mean primarily numbers (though the church grew by 20% this year). More people found faith, more connected to Christian community as something healthy and life-giving who never thought that would happen for them. We have more leaders in the church this year than last year. We've also had our setbacks: our mural project got stuck in the city-wide legal problems surrounding public art murals (it's a long story). We've had key people move out of town and some hit hard by financial and other life challenges. But I would say that overall, our life in the city as witnesses to God's reign is stronger than a year ago. More on this later, perhaps.

Our children are in a new school that is working out much better for them. We are all VERY pleased that Sophie started Kindergarten and Zoe is now in 3rd grade at Franklin Elementary.

In addition to this here are some other highlights of our year...

Travel

Obviously, the traveling Elysabeth and I have been privileged to do has been probably the #1 highlight of our year. In addition to traveling to Moscow (here, here and here) and St. Petersburg in October and Israel (here and here) in December, I went to

• Washington, D.C. in January for research meetings about PICOs ongoing work around health care reform.
• Princeton, NJ in June for the Envision '08 conference. (Also here).
• Orlando, FL in September for the annual Spectrum/Adventist Forums Conference.
• Columbus, OH in October for the Innovation Conference.

Community Beautification Grant
The Hollywood Adventist Church received a $10,000 Community Beautification Grant from the City of Los Angeles to paint an art mural on the wall of our church that faces the freeway. (More here and here).

Interfaith work
2008 was the year I got deeply involved in interfaith work. Some of the highlights of this was participating in the Memorial Day Interfaith Service at All Saints in Pasadena, meeting Robi Damelin and Ali Abu Awwad from the Parents Circle Families Form and being elected Treasurer of the Interreligious Council of Southern California (website).

Community Organizing with LA Voice/PICO
We have had another amazing year partnering with LA Voice in local community organizing, mostly around the crisis of affordable housing in Los Angeles. My participation in the national work really dwindled this year as I had so many other travel commitments, but I'm looking forward to getting back involved in early 2009.

Adventists Against Prop 8
I am so proud of the work our little group did in speaking out, as Christians, for the rights of gays and lesbians in California (website). This is a fight we temporarily lost, but our work united many good people who have either left the Adventist Church, have been on the fringes of the church, or who just never imagined that anyone in the church would stand for religious liberty and human rights in the way that we attempted to do. I am also very grateful to the leaders of the local Conferences and the Pacific Union who worked with us to allow a different voice to be heard in this debate. I'm glad my church can tolerate diverse viewpoints.

And of course, for me, one of the greatest highlights of the year was...

the election of Barack Obama the 44th President of the United States

BEST BOOKS I READ IN 2008

I've read a lot of books this year, as usual, but I really haven't read that many good ones. I'm not sure what that means. And I can't tell you how many I've started but never finished. Here are the cream of the crop from what I read this year, in no particular order. As usual, these are not books that necessarily came out in 2008 (though some are).

Three Cups of Tea, by Greg Mortenson

The Fidelity of Betrayal, by Peter Rollins

Wisdom Distilled from the Daily, Joan Chittister, OSB

Surprised by Hope, N.T. Wright

Evangelism After Christendom, Bryan Stone

Here's to a healthy and joyful New Year!

Talking about Hollywood on SpiritFlash

My friend, Rich Dubose, who runs the website, SpiritFlash, came to Hollywood recently and videotaped a short interview. It's now online. You can see it below or at the SpiritFlash website here.